This Valentine’s Day, Frankie and I spent together in Florence, Italy.  Pretty amazing story if I do say so myself.  Valentine’s day was a Monday, which meant I didn’t have any classes but Frankie had a 9am class.  At officially 12:00am (in Italy) we were walking home to our apartments from the bus ride home from Prague, Czech Republic.  We wished each other a Happy Valentine’s Day and kissed goodnight.  Nothing too exciting happened during the day, we went on our usual outing to lunch at The Oil Shoppe. 

Lauren and Mike joined us and our sandwiches were sooo good!  The lady at the Oil Shoppe gave me an extra punch on my free sandwich card because it was V-Day! How nice of her! 

After the Oil Shoppe Frankie and I ventured on a 20 minute tram ride to a HUGE market where Frankie bought a camera and we went grocery shopping.  I FINALLY found a bottle of body lotion and was obviously incredibly excited.  After that we headed home and Frankie had a soccer game later that night.  They won obviously and it was really exciting because one of my roommates, Krista, came with me to see the boys play (I wasn’t the only fan)!

After the game Frankie took a shower and we headed over to try a new restaurant that Frankie’s roommates love called Dante’s.  They serve free breadsticks and free wine to students, and we made reservations earlier that day for 8:30.  Everything was delicious and it came out literally within minutes of us ordering it!  We split a pizza which was to die for, and a bottle of the house wine (I prefer white but their red was really good). 

The people at the restaurant were entirely too nice and actually handed out roses to all the girls that were there!  It was so sweet of them and Frankie and I were amazed and talked about how that would never happen in America.

When we left we walked one bridge closer to the Ponte Vecchio and the photo-shoot began. 

I placed my camera on the bridge and set the self timer so we could run into the middle of the street and kiss…over and over again haha.  The end result was some of my favorite pictures of us to date with the beautiful Ponte Vecchio in the background!

I’m so sorry, I’ve been neglecting updating my blog.  The first thing I need to update you on was my weekend trip to Prague in the Czech Republic!  Frankie, Krista, Kiley, Jessie, Paige, and I all booked our trip with Bus2Alps (a student travel company) for the weekend before Valentine’s day.  On Thursday, we boarded a private coach bus, with about a hundred other students, and began our 12 hour journey to Prague.  Fortunately for me I slept the whole way there and woke up a few blocks away from our “hostel”. 

We checked into the Czech Inn and headed up to our rooms.  Because there were six people in our room they gave us apartment style rooms.  The hostel was truly nicer than most hotels I’ve seen.  Not that it really mattered, we spent most of our time out and about anyway, but we had two separate rooms, an upstairs, a kitchen, and a bathroom all to ourselves!  

Shortly after checking in and getting settled, we headed downstairs and breakfast (it was buffet style and absolutely delicious)!  After breakfast, we headed out on a tour of the city with New Europe.  Our tour guide Colin was hilarious and relayed a ton of interesting information throughout our stroll through Prague.  The first thing Colin taught us in Prague was how to use the tram, which was something of a crazy experience.  And then he taught us how to use the metro, which you have to ride an escalator for 2 and a half minutes down to get to!  Its the second longest escalator in europe! 

We walked to the Old Town Square where we witnessed some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen.  The buildings range from gothic to baroque style of architecture and as Paige would say they were Easter Egg Colored.  

In Old Town Square you find the Astronomical Clock (aka Paige’s FAVORITE CLOCK EVER) which is a huge tourist spectacular.  The most popular component of the clock is called the “Walk of the Apostles”, where Apostles and other figures pop out on the hour, along with trumpet players and chiming, etc.  While in the Old Town Square, we also saw the Tyn Church, the St. James  Church, and the Powder Gate.  The architecture is honestly indescribable, and the mix of styles is vast but somehow the buildings find a way to compliment each other.

After being in the Old Town Square we moved through the city and saw the venue that Mozart played his last live show in!  We stopped for a little while to get lunch (Paige, Frankie, and I bought hot dogs that were wrapped in huge crescent roll type things) and moved onto the Jewish Quarter. 

Colin showed us the oldest synagogue in Europe! 

  We saw a museum that held pictures children drew in the camps during the Holocaust, I didn’t have time to go inside that day (and it wasn’t open on Saturdays) but if I ever make it back to Prague I definitely want to check it out! 

We continued along with our tour and ended at the Rudolfinum, where we had an AMAZING first view of Prague Castle.  After tipping Colin, we (Frankie, the Girls, and I) began our search for a more satisfying (aka second) lunch.  We went to a place called Bohemia Bagel, I was pretty full so I just bought a bagel (for only 11 Euro-cents mind you) but everyone else got salads & sandwiches which they loved! 

We obviously stopped on the way out at a small pastry shop for some sweets and headed over to the Old Town Square where we met up with our Bus2Alps trip leaders who helped us get back to the hostel.  

We were all exhausted and took a cat nap (more like 3 hour long nap) and when we woke up it was time to start getting ready.  We went to the Clock Tower Pub Crawl with Bus2Alps and had a blast hanging out in the city at night.  The fact that we got free t-shirts for the pub crawl was an obvious bonus!  

The next morning, after breakfast of course, we headed out on another walking tour (this time with our Bus2Alps leaders). 

On this tour we got to see the John Lenon Wall, the Charles Bridge, the peeing statue (no seriously), and other parts of Mala Strana. 

We had to leave their walking tour a little early so we could make it to the Prague Castle Tour we had signed up for.  We headed over to the Old Town Square to meet our tour guide and picked up coffee on the way (Prague was wicked cold)!  

The castle tour wasn’t at all what we expected but it was still really cool (literally we froze out there)!  We toured the whole castle and walked for a total of 3 hours.  The inside was beautiful and it was definitely worth it to see, I just wished it had been warmer, but nevertheless the views of the city from the castle were to die for.

One of my favorite parts of the castle tour was getting to what I call the echo circle.  You stand in the middle of a stone circle, and there are stairs that surround the circle like choir stands.  When you stand in the middle you talk and hear a loud echo, but no one else hears.  We all heard people do the same thing over and over again they’d say a word and follow with a loud and immediate OH!  It sounds so funny until you’re in the middle and do it yourself.

After our tour we headed over to get dinner at the beer factory.  It’s a restaurant where they have beer taps on the tables and you pour your own beer!  They make it into a competition to see who can drink the most beer, I obviously lost… Frankie and I split onion rings with a chili sauce and they were delicious!  After we left the beer factory we stopped at a kebab stand (because the beer factory was really expensive for food) to pick up some cheap sandwiches.

We headed back to the hostel and began to get ready to go out for the night.  We ended up at Lucerna which is an 80’s and 90’s club/bar/discoteca.  They only play 80’s and 90’s music which was SOO fun.  Frankie actually danced…on stage, I know no one believes me but it happened.  We headed back to the hostel around 1 (to avoid Frankie head butting these guys who were barking at Kiley) and Frankie and I devoured loaves of Italian bread…they were SO GOOD.

We woke up early to get breakfast before boarding the bus for the 12 hour ride back to Florence.  They ride home was not as easy as the ride there, probably because I was awake for most of it.  I was so excited to return home to Florence though, I’m so glad I picked a city I love to live in for this semester! I miss you all and I’m hoping to catch you up on all my adventures that I haven’t posted yet by the end of the week! 

I haven’t had a lot of time to write lately, things get busy fast here!  So I’ll try to catch you all up & start to post on a more regular basis.

I’ll start off with Thursday, the day I had three classes.  I start off my Thursday mornings with a history class, The Rise and Fall of the Medici Family.  We’re going on a total of six field trips throughout the semester and I’m really excited about it!  After my history class I have a short, thirty minute break where Frankie and I picked up paninis at a little shop close to our classes.  They were only 3.50 euro and were DELICIOUS… and Frankie was really happy to have turkey (we mainly eat pasta and pizza here).  After our quick lunch I went to my Wine Tasting class which was really interesting.  We learned about the different regions of Italy and how they all produce different types of wine.  We also learned that there is sparkling wine and normal wine.  Sparkling wine was made to try and compete with champagne.  We tried three wines and learned about the steps of tasting!  

After that class, I met Frankie and we went to pick up books for our classes.  I stopped and picked up gelato, coffee and caramel (it was to die for).  We had Italian next and it practically flew by.  I really enjoy learning new languages, and I try to use what I learn in conversations with locals (even though most of them know English).  After Italian we walked back to my apartment where we did our homework.  We walked to his apartment to make dinner, his kitchen is HUGE.  I made us sausage and pasta (the poor man’s pasta I learned how to make the other day), Frankie attempted to make garlic bread… we ended up just eating normal bread.  After dinner we hung out with his roommates and went to the lion’s fountain.  It was really crowded so Frankie and I escaped to a Kebab place around the corner, and split a kebab.  It was really good but they put french fries in it, how weird is that?!  We left the Lion’s Fountain with his friends and went to Astor, a bar close to the Duomo.  We sat and chatted with a bunch of our friends, it was really fun! 

On Friday, Frankie and I went to the Oil Shoppe.  This little shop, on a side road near the Duomo, has the BEST sandwiches.  We both had turkey sandwiches, and for two euro we added french fries and a drink!  

After lunch, we had a mandatory Health & Self-Defense workshop.  It was interesting, but we really wished we were outside, it was beautiful and sunny out (60 degrees)!  I took a nap after the class and Frankie and I went to Little David’s for Pizza (my favorite pizza place so far).  We spent the night planning trips and booked three!  Next weekend we’re going to Prague, and the last weekend we’re here we’re taking a trip to the Almafi Coast!  We also booked a day trip to the Cinque Terre for April 17th. 

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed to the train station.  Lauren, Krista, Bailey, Sarah, Frankie, and I planned a trip to San Gimignano.  We hopped on the train and arrived at Poggibonsi where we jumped on a bus to San Gimignano.  The town is a small, hilltop town that practically transports you to the medieval times.  Back in the day, San Gimignano had 72 towers that were used for defensive purposes and also to boost the egos of their owners (it was a constant competition to build the highest tower).  You could literally cross the town by rooftop rather than road!  Today only 14 towers remain in this “medival Manhattan,”  the tallest one, the Torre Grossa, reaching 54 meters, or 175 ft!

At first Krista and I were freezing because we decided not to wear jackets (it was supposed to be 60 again)!  But, as we wandered around the town we found a small road that led to a warm and sunny view of the surrounding hills. 

We made our way to the Museo Civico (we weren’t allowed to take pictures) and climbed the Torre Grossa!  It was a beautiful view and we obviously enjoyed the photo op!

After climbing the Torre Grossa, we headed back down and went to find a place for lunch.  We ended up at a cute little restaurant when I had a panini (salami) with fresh baked bread, and Frankie had (what we’re sure was freshly made) pasta with an unbelievable meat sauce!  I love trying food outside of Florence (don’t get me wrong I love the food inside Florence also), its always a little bit different and authentic to its place and location!  After lunch, we bought our bus tickets and some gelato, of course (I had a hazelnut with caramel mixture).  We found some benches and basked in the warm sun while waiting for our bus.  The bus ride back to the train station was much smoother than the train ride back to Florence (we didn’t realize we had a train ride with a change over).  
 

Sunday was Superbowl day, Krista, Lauren and I woke up early and headed over to The Diner for some breakfast.  After breakfast we headed back to the apartment and did some house cleaning.  For dinner I went over to Frankie’s apartment and we had a family dinner with all of his roommates and some of our other friends!  I cooked the sausage and helped make the sauce, of course there was tons of wine!  After dinner we headed over to the Fish Pub for the Superbowl, which didn’t start till 12:30 here!  We only stayed till half-time and went to a “secret bakery” on the way home!

A secret bakery is a bakery that opens after 12 and bakes all morning long to supply the bakeries and restaurants and cafes with their baked goods.  These secret bakeries aren’t supposed to sell to people, but they leave their doors open and their lights on.  If you’re lucky enough to find one (there are no signs and you just have to wing it) you can walk in and to the back of the bakery where you’ll be greeted by Italian bakers who will sell you pastries and the sort.  Everything is fresh and really cheap, I bought a croissant mela (an apple croissant) for one euro!  

Monday, I didn’t have class so I slept in and went to the market, cleaned, and did little errands.  I had to go to an appointment for my Permisso de Sigorno (permit of stay).  When I came home I looked at all the ingredients I had bought and made a plan for dinner.  I started to marinade my chicken in a lemon sauce I made and headed over to Frankie’s soccer game!  Him and three of his roommates are in the tournament for the API team.  They won the game 10-4!  I came back and started to cook the rest of dinner and Frankie came over after he showered.  We didn’t end up eating until 10pm (we’re finally adjusting to the Italian meal times)!  I made us a lemon, garlic chicken with roasted potatoes and a fresh baguette.  I also stole a desert recipe from Lauren and made fresh baked apples for desert!  After dinner I read for my organized crime class & watched the new episode of Glee.
 

Tuesday, I didn’t have class until 4:30 but I woke up early to try and get myself organized.  I went on a walk to the market to buy the ingredients I needed for the dessert we were having, and picked up some notebooks and folders.  I tried to sign myself up for the Yoga club at school but all the slots filled up yesterday, I was so sad.  Then I came home and cleaned and did some reading.  I had class, and after class I came home and skyped with Katie!  It was really good to see here and Laura even though the connection was totally horrible. 

I left to go to Frankie’s game, the boys won 4 to 1 and Frankie and Parker both scored!  After the game I went home and started cooking with the girls, we were having a potluck with Frankie’s roommates!  We made an apple crisp and chicken cutlets, and Lauren bought cookies on her way home from class.  We headed over to the boys’ apartment where we helped them make the pasta, vegetables, and garlic bread!  Everything was really delicious and it was nice to finally get our apartments together!  We had a lot of fun and before we knew it, it was 12 and we headed home.  Jessie, the human garbage disposal, was still hungry and failed at making soup by letting it boil over at 1 am.  Needless to say, I was dying laughing. 

I miss you all terribly, but I’m safe and loving every second of Italy!  Like I said I’m going to try to write on a more regular basis so hopefully you’ll hear from me tonight! Ciao <3

Ps. the pictures were courtesy of Krista Carlson (except the Superbowl one!) 

Hi everybody, I’ve been a busy little bee lately!  I’m so sorry I haven’t written but here’s what has happened in the past few days:

On Sunday the girls and I woke up to a dreary looking morning in Florence.  Frankie, fearing a bad day for pictures, decided not to go to Pisa.  The girls and I checked the forecast, and seeing no rain decided to hop the train anyway.  What did we have to lose?  My original plan was to just roam around and find the tower, take some pictures and basically wing it.  Luckily we had an hour long train ride and I spent some time looking at a Rick Steve’s guide of Pisa that Jessie brought along with her.  It had a step by step walking guide on sights to stop and see on your way to the tower and so the girls and I decided to try it out!

From Jessie’s guide book I learned a lot about the city that was only a 60 minute train ride away from my new home.  Pisa was once inhabited by the Etruscans and became a part of the Roman Empire.  It was a incredibly powerful as a sea-trading power for three centuries after 1200 A.D.  It even rivaled Venice, Genoa, and Almafi.  Pisa used the money it had gained from its sea-trading power to build the monuments within the Field of Miracles (for example the Leaning Tower) before it lost a battle with Genoa and was left high & dry.

We arrived at Pisa and immediately bought a 2.5 euro map of Pisa, we felt very lost!  Once we figured out where we were in the tiny city we began on our tour with our lovely tour guide Jessie! 

Our first stop was at the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II where we saw the american artist, Keith Haring’s Tuttomondo (Whole Wide World).  This grafiti wall is huge and beautiful to look at, but it also represents diversity, chaos, as well as the liveliness of our world today. 

We reached the bridge or the Ponte di Mezzo and took pictures before crossing it of course! 

Across the bridge was the Piazza Garibaldi where we found La Bottegadel Gelato (the best gelato shop in Pisa).  Unfortunately it was a little too chilly for gelato so we continued on to Borgo Stretto which is Pisa’s main shopping street.  We visited the Piazza delle Vettovaglie, Pisa’s main market place, but it was closed (as are many things in Italy on Sundays).  Then we visited the Piazza dei Cavalieri, which is a the Piazza which once sat the independent Republic of Pisa’s government.  We saw the statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici (he was a florentine ruler at one point)!  We continued on the path to finally find the Campo de i Miracoli (the Field of Miracles) which houses the duomo, the baptistry, and the leaning tower!  Everything was truly beautiful!

The tower really does lean!  After seeing the Field of Miracles and all of the tourists that crowd the streets around it we decided to stop and grab a bite to eat (meaning pizza for me of course).  After everyone finished their meals we literally ran to catch the four o’clock train and slept during the ride back.  When we got home we made our family dinner… yum!  We had a salad and bruschetta.  I made pasta with red sauce and sausage.  Then we had apple crisp for desert!  Everything was amazing and we sat at the table for hours talking and enjoying each other’s company. 

The next day, Monday, was the first day of classes for most people, but lucky me I didn’t have class.  I attempted to go to an italian conversation class at noon, these classes are free and run by API on Monday through Thursday.  Unfortunately the class was not being offered on that Monday because it was so busy in the office!  I decided to use my free time to explore the Bargello Museum.  After inviting Frankie to join me I waited for him in the Piazza de San Marco.  It was a beautiful and warm day so I didn’t mind sitting on a bench and people watching.  Technically I was bird watching, the birds have no fear here they go straight up to you without flinching!

When Frankie met me we walked to the Museum and saw tons of beautiful statues and artifacts.  Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum but I do have some from the outside portion.  Once I load them onto my computer I’ll post them! After the museum we grabbed lunch and I took a nap.  There was a free dinner hosted by Lorenzo de’ Medici (my school) so Frankie and I arranged for our roommates to meet and walk over to the dinner together!  The place we ate was absolutely beautiful and the pasta was delicious.

On Tuesday I had my first day of class, Photography at 9am.  I decided to switch out of photography because it was going to cost a lot of money to maintain the class and it required 90 hours for three credits instead of the normal 45 hours.  I switched into Wine and Culture because it would fill an open elective which is what I was receiving for Photography.  I had Italian later that night and really enjoyed it!  Frankie and I made dinner… so I made dinner.  We had chicken cutlets with pasta, green beans, and homemade french fries!  We both didn’t have class till late on Wednesday so we went to meet his roommates at the Red Garter to watch the Beer Pong Tournament that happens there on Tuesdays.

Today, Wednesday, I had my pairing foods with wine class.  The professor seems really sweet and she took us on a walking tour of the city and showed us good places to get food and wine and what places are good to eat at!  Then we returned to class and made A Poor Man’s Pasta.  It was absolutely delicious and I’m going to start keeping a food/recipe journal!  I can’t wait to make it for my mom.

 After pairing foods with wine I grabbed a soda and waited for Frankie so we could head to our Organized Crime and the Italian Mafia class.  It seems like it’s going to be pretty interesting.  The professor took us to the bookstore to show us where to get our books and then let class out early!  Frankie and I went over to the API office to sign him up for the Florentine Cup, a soccer tournament.  Then we went to go pick up some books and grabbed gelato!  I had coffee or caffe and it was DELISH.  we heated up some left overs for dinner and now I’m here writing to you!  I’m exhausted but I wanted to wait up to wish my mom a happy birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. I love you so much <3 I’ll be back before you know it!

Now I’m going to bed!  Three classes tomorrow, oh boy… what a day I have ahead of me.

Love you all! 

Okay, hopefully I can get you all up to date of my adventures thus far in this post! On Wednesday we moved into our apartment! We had to wake up at 6:30am in order to get to breakfast before struggling to get our luggage down to the bus for 7:30. After dragging our bags from the Piazza Independenza (the square the bus dropped us off at) we realized our apartment is absolutely adorable and so much nicer than any of us had expected! We have two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a family room, a dining room, a kitchen, and A BALCONY. My single has two beds & two closets! And the apartment is beautiful! It’s definitely refreshing to have our own space in the city as opposed to living out of a hotel.

My flatmates are wonderful and we all get along really well. After unpacking and having a meeting with our landlord we decided to roam around the city. We stopped into a small ristorante to eat something and I had the best pasta I’ve ever eaten in my life. I truly am trying my hardest to try new foods that I would never have eaten in America (which isn’t terribly difficult since everything is delicious), but having my first bowl of penne pasta was impossible to describe with words.

Later on that evening my roommates, Frankie, and I bonded over wine & drinks in our dining room. We eventually left to embark on my first ever pub crawl. The sangria was delicious, and deadly. I met a bunch of new people through the pub crawl but by far my favorite part of the night was Krista screaming that I had won a raffle. I was completely shocked when I was told I won a trip to the Slovenian Alps with Euroaventures!

The next morning I decided to opt out of the optional “survival tour” and slept in instead. When my roommates returned we all went to a sandwich shop called the Oil Shoppe where for 4.50 euros I was given a turkey panini, french fries, and a drink. The sandwich was delicious and I’m definitely going back as soon as possible. The food aspect of the country is undoubtedly my favorite aspect of Italy thus far. It seems as if everything I eat is unbelievably delicious.

I also really enjoy all the walking we do around here. Florence is a walking city and whenever I’ve had free time I’ve been taking the streets and exploring my new surroundings. Even though Krista is our designated directions girl (she does an unreal amount of research), I feel pretty confident in my own navigation skills.

On Friday we had our Academic Orientation. Luckily we grabbed bagels before the four hours of sessions with everyone from the Dean of Students to our own Academic Advisors. Having stayed up late the night before (as usual) I was exhausted. I think I haven’t quite recovered from the jet lag of the six hour time difference. After the sessions concluded we had a free day ahead of us and used it wisely… at the supermarket.

Later on, the girls and I went to the Lion’s Fountain for drinks. I giddily located the Bryant University t-shirt on the ceiling with many of my friends’ signatures. Cory will be ecstatic to know I found his and begged Krista to take a picture for me!

Today Krista and I woke up early to go to the central market before our cooking class. The central market is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, everything is incredibly fresh and the whole experience is somewhat overwhelming for a beginner like me. We needed to pick up things for our family dinner tomorrow because the market, much like everything else in Florence, is closed on Sundays. Which brings me to Sundays… we’ve decided to make a new, themed family dinner every Sunday. This Sunday is non other than Italian week! I’m making the sauce for the pasta and sausage, it should be interesting.

After the market we returned to the apartment to pick up the other girls for our cooking class. We learned how to make crepes, tiramisu, and zucchini florentine. I’m incredibly excited about knowing how to make crepes… i can make my own on Sunday mornings now! And the Zucchini Florentine was to die for, we’re definitely making it again.  Here are some of Krista’s pictures!

Frankie and I had plans to go to Fiesole, a small town overlooking Florence in the mountains, after my cooking class. So we had the wonderful experience of boarding the bus for 1.2 euro. The bus system requires you to validate your ticket on the bus itself, and then the ticket is good for 90 minutes. The directions were written in Italian so we had a little trouble using the machine, but eventually we figured it out and enjoyed the views from the twenty minute ride.

When we arrived in Fiesole we had no idea of where to go to see the views and ended up stopping to get Frankie some pizza. The woman in the pizzeria was absolutely adorable she not only happily gave us directions to see the panorama but also gave me a free dessert! We left and climbed the longest, steepest walk to what we believe is the top of the mountain. The views were absolutely incredible despite the fog. I wish our pictures had come out better but I realized when I was loading them onto the computer the flash had been turned off.

Don’t worry, I’ll definitely remember the flash component on our trip to Pisa tomorrow afternoon! I’m going to hold up the Leaning Tower!! Miss you all <3

So much has happened in the past two days it’s truly insane.  I guess I’ll start at the airport.  It was so much harder to say goodbye to my family than I thought.  My mom, despite her “goal” to not cry, was crying, obviously.  It made me want to cry too, it was so sad and I definitely started to tear up.  I was really glad that my dad and brother drove down to New York to see me off, it made me feel so much better.  Frankie and I said goodbye to our families, after checking in our baggage, and headed through security.  The line was incredibly long but we made it through pretty fast!  We located our gate and bought our last food from the United States for four months, Nathan’s Hot Dogs.  Let me tell you, they were delicious!  Time was moving so quickly it definitely didn’t feel like we were sitting in the airport for two hours, but next thing we knew we were boarding the plane to Rome.

I greedily snagged the window seat, but my lovely boyfriend didn’t seem to mind and I was able to happily watch the sun set from the plane. 

Even from the plane it didn’t  feel real, like I was still moving through the motions of a normal day.  Our takeoff was flawless,although not as quick as Frankie would have liked it, he’s very impatient incase you didn’t know.  For dinner we had a choice of meat or fish and we both chose meat which ended up being a beef dish that was actually not quite bad.  We had a delicious roll and the desert was some really good apple cake-type-thing.  After dinner I don’t really remember much, I fell asleep for about five hours and was woken up when breakfast was being served.  Personally, I would have much rather continued to sleep than eat breakfast, but the pastry type dish was really good.

We landed in Roma and went through customs and walked all the way to gate B27.  After about an hour we heard a boy saying our flight was moved to another gate and quickly moved to the new gate and boarded almost immediately.  This flight was a piece of cake, only one hour whereas the flight into Rome was eight and a half.  Unfortunately, we were sitting next to four really annoying boys, but before we knew it we were there and searching for lost luggage.  Frankie and I both had to register one bag that was lost before being carted off to the hotel by the API staff.

Right off the bus I met Kylie, one of my flatmates!  She was one of my roommates in the hotel along with Jessie who is also in my apartment.  Frankie and I walked around the city a little bit and grabbed our first italian meal, bruschetta, before the API welcome dinner/orientation. 

By that timeI had found Ani and met her roommate Haley and they sat with us at the dinner and orientation.  The dinner was really good, we had amazing potatoes and there was a good chicken dish, there was a pesto pasta which was alright nothing I’d jump over fire for but not bad by any extent.  That night Ani, Frankie, Haley, and I ended up walking around Florence looking for something to do.  We eventually got lost and asked two older, Italian men for directions back to our hotel.  We grabbed a glass of wine at the hotel bar and called it a night.  

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast which was delicious.  Frankie woke up late so it was just me Ani, and Haley who is really funny and sweet.  The fruit is like nothing I’ve ever had in the US before.  The pineapple is so delicious I almost died, and they had rolls and a very salty ham.  We also had cereal, they have Frosties here, which are literally the same thing as Frosted Flakes!  After breakfast we had another orientation session, and we received our Museum Cards which let us into a bunch of Museums in Florence for Free!

After our orientation Frankie, Ani, and I walked around and Frankie and I bought crepes.  We had them with nutella and bananas and they were the most delicious things  in the world.  I originally was hoping for strawberries and nutella so I learnedhow to say strawberry in italian, fragola.  Ani went back to her room to nap for a little which before we had our walking tour, and Frankie and I walked around the city a little more and bought our first bottle of Italian wine.  I bought white and he bought red.  Then at three we had a guided walking tour of the city and we saw amazing sights and main points of the city… but were nearly frozen by the end.  I have tons of pictures to post don’t worry! 

After our walking tour we had our first italian pizza, which was really good!  We found a little place called pizzA’ and afterwards went to a small cafe for desert.  We all went back to the hotel and napped before getting ready to go out.  Which really means we napped before going down to Ani’s room to drink wine and then go eat more food.  It seems we’re always hungry when we’re in Italy…strange.  Anyway we ended up meeting up with Frankie’s roommates at a bar.  After us girls ran back to the hotel to change into club clothes at like 12am we ran back to the bar only to find Frankie and his roommates walking away from the bar.  It was terrible, but then we went back to the hotel and decided to go look for an Irish pub.  The only ones we found were really creepy so we went back to the hotel and went to bed.  When I have more time I’ll post about today, and I promise it won’t be a novel like this post.  Love and miss you all.

Ciao! 

It’s 12:58 am on January 23rd 2011 and I, Ashley Hicks, am exhausted.  Currently, I’m trying to stay away as long as I possibly can so that I’ll sleep on my red eye flight tonight.  I wasn’t nervous, and all day I’ve been telling people how it seems like its just another day and it doesn’t feel like I’m leaving the country tomorrow.  Blah, blah, blah.  Well guess what?  It’s hit me.  My anxiety is through the roof just thinking about waking up in the morning and driving to New York.  I can’t believe the time to go is finally here. 

I said goodbye to some of my friends today and it was much sadder than I expected it to be.  Although, I can proudly say I did not cry saying goodbye, even if I really wanted to.  If I did not get the chance to say goodbye to you, I’m truly sorry.  For many of you this will be the first time you’ll see my blog so I want to state a few things about it.  If you’re wondering about the name of my blog, on the left side there is a link that says “About the Project”, it will explain that to you.  This blog is not affiliated with my school, Bryant University.  It is also not something I’m getting paid for, or something I’m doing for the company I’m going abroad with.  There are two people this blog is for; you & me.  What that means is I probably won’t be grammatically correct one hundred percent of the time.  If you have a question there is an ask button & I have an email you can send me questions to listed on the side of the blog. 

The purpose at this point of the project is to relay what’s happening in my life to everyone back home and all my followers on tumblr (most of whom don’t know me in real life <3).  If you don’t have a tumblr account and would like to recieve an email from me every time I post something new on my blog please just send me a message to my email at ahicks1@bryant.edu and I’ll put you on a notification list!  That being said, I’ll miss all of you.  

I’m leaving at 5:35pm today, and it doesn’t feel real.  Hopefully I’ll have internet in the airport in Rome and I’ll post on here that I’ve made it.  If not I’ll post as soon as I can.  I love you all & see you soon.  

It’s incredibly hard for me to believe that in four days I will be boarding a plane with the intentions of landing in Rome, Italy.  I’ve been planning this trip for over a year, and the last thing I expected to feel was nervous.  I imagine myself sitting in a café with a journal and a caffe Americano, just people watching.  That I can do.  I imagine myself taking a tour of a vineyard, and learning how to make the amazing vino of the region.  That I can do. I even imagine myself in my apartment smiling and cooking with my new roommates.  That I can do.  But, as the day of my departure draws closer I feel overwhelmed with things I didn’t think I would feel; nervousness and sadness. 

Please don’t misunderstand; I am beyond ecstatic about moving to Italy and having the adventure of a lifetime.  I’m afraid I’m leaving everything I know, and every person that cares about me, and I’ll miss it here.  That would be the worst thing wouldn’t it?  To travel halfway across the world to Florence, Italy and then feel sad.  The other thing I’m surprised about is the lack of realness to what’s about to happen.  I’m literally picking up everything and boarding a plane in 4 days, why doesn’t it feel real?  I suppose that’s how it is for everyone, Frankie says it doesn’t feel real to him either.  I think it’ll start to feel real when we get to the airport on Sunday.  I hope it does.

The sad thing is that I almost feel more nervous about our families meeting for the first time, than I do for the flight to Florence itself.  Silly, huh?  Ohhhh dear.  There is absolutely no turning back now, and believe me I don’t want to.  And, I’m so appreciative to have Frankie coming with me; I truly don’t know how Brittany and Brie went/are going without anyone they’re close to.  I think I’d be a million times more nervous.  Today I’m going to get coffee with Ani, the girl from my hometown who’s going to be there with me… like three blocks away!  Maybe I’ll post later while I’m packing & going through all the documents I need to bring with me.

But, for now all I can say is: Bring on the experiences, the sights, the travel, the art, the people, the friends, the wine, the pizza, the time of my life.  Bring on Florence.

att3mpt asked: Dear Ashley,
I can already tell this will be very long. First off, thank you so much for the follow! I think it benefitted me more than you. Just curious, but how did u come across my tumblr?
Your blog is so interesting. I read all of it and honestly there's so much I could say and so much I'm curious about. Also I LOVE the theme! I've seen it before but for some reason it looks WAY better with your posts and stuff(:
Traveling abroad sounds super interesting+adventurous. Your tumblr reminds me of movies like Julie&Julia (recording the different travels) and kinda the Devil Wears Prada cause you get to travel and even a little bit of Sisterhood of traveling pants hence the traveling point lol but my point is I think what your doing is seriously amazing. It's like a movie...traveling to different places, learning so many new things. I am looking forward to your posts/updates and more pictures! I'm excited for you haha and I hope you have an amazing time in Italy(:
p.s. I will ask my Otherr questions laterr haha
have a lovely day/afternoon/evening night whatever! :D

awww thank you!!! haha i have all your questions in my message box and they’re making me SO SO SO happy :) 

you honestly just made my day!! and i’m so happy that someone appreciates the purpose of the blog :D 

I’m going to answer all of your questions in just a minute, i promise!